Written by: Roshni Singh, Career Stories team
From a Chemical Engineering Researcher to Research Development
“Discover your passion, discover your purpose, and go with it!” and this is exactly what he did. Meet Dr. Don Takehara, a former research chemical engineer at Dow Chemical whose passion and purpose led him to the world of Research Development.
Don Takehara, PhD is the Director for Research, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Grainger College of Engineering. Before joining Research Development, Don was an R&D chemical engineer at Dow Chemical (16 years) and Professor and Director of the Center for Research & Innovation at Taylor University (9 years). He uses this background, his experience as a certified coach, and 9 years at the University of Illinois to support engineering faculty and teams as they grow their research portfolios. Career and leadership coaching/training, as well as team science training, are current areas of focus for Don.
Don’s life purpose and mission are to be a catalyst for people to go from surviving to thriving and bringing people together to do the unimaginable. As a certified coach, which he thoroughly enjoys, he coaches faculty on career and leadership development and helps them deepen their understanding regarding a decision, a struggle, the future, etc. — allowing them to confidently move forward. Don believes that this “no advice” coaching is helpful for everyone and implementing being more “coach-like” within academia (in mentoring and everyday life) would be transformational.
Don’s key to a successful career is understanding his life purpose and bringing that into career decisions, building relationships with others, and getting involved when opportunities line up with this overarching purpose. He strongly believes that God has opened up doors including being “at the right place at the right time” — an example being when his Associate Dean offered training to be a certified coach.
Don advises his colleagues to understand their 4-8 top core values by evaluating mountain top moments in life and reflecting on “what made them so special.” Continuously being conscious of core values and using them for life decisions can have a huge impact, resulting in unexpected impact and legacy as evidenced by surprising words of appreciation — “You never know the ripple effects of what you do, and who you engage with — #PayItForward.” When asked about RD pro-tip or hack, Don passionately answered that “Research involves people; remember that there are emotions around the process of RD and find joy in helping people with their research.”
Don is on the Strategic Alliance Committee and the liaison to NACRO (Network for Academic Corporate Relations Officers) where he is working on a “grassroots” approach where Corporate Relations and RD folks work together to support the NSF Engines program. Don highly endorses NORDP as a place he fits in. Don is a NORDP Consultant, helped start the Coaching and RD Peer Mentoring Group (PMG), participates in the Collaboration and Team Science PMG, and with the iKNOW (Immigrant Knowledge and Wisdom) Affinity Group. He is also a consultant for the AtKisson Training Group.
As someone close to retirement, these opportunities will help shape Don’s retirement plan including continuing to be involved with RD and helping people move from surviving to thriving.
Don would love to answer any questions you have, so please feel free to email him at dtakehar@illinois.edu
The link to the interview to Don’s full Career Stories by the NORDP LEAD Career Stories team will be posted when available.
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